Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/38

 * Xl*?.l OF MANCHESTER. w> incident of a mort alarming nature bnd upbn encroachment* in a nearer diftrtdt. About lialf a century hcfore Clirii^ the Bri- tons of Cheshire, as I (hall fhew hereafter, bur ft from the ©ar- row confines of their own dominions, and attacked overman -and fu Indued three or four of the adjoining counties oh the South Such an a& of hoftihty amoi^g the natives of the North, the fir ft that we know to have been committed amongft them, would neceflarily awaken the jealdufies of all the neigh- - houring ftates, and would particularly induce the Si&uhtii to ere& one or more fortreflbs vpon the Ikw of their Southern bor- ders. Then mu4t the area of the Caftte- fi^ld have been cleared of its oaks, and then the well-watered fentrefs <>( Mancenion have been coaftrutted by the Siftrtntians. The foctrefe could not well havfc been conftra&ed before this period. And it.muft neceflarily have been conftrudbed at .it. Thus the rude ftation of Mince nion, one of the firft towns in the county of Lancafter* a little prior to all the mor£ northerly .forts, ©fcd the firft faint outlines of the prefent Manchcfrer* was originally forefced about half a century before Chrift, about the awra of the war focoeff*- fully carried on by the fontherly Britons againft the encroadirng Beig** or about the sera of Oeficr's expedkitm agamft both Thi dimeafions xrf Mancenion are ftili **r* ^tftjomibie* It 6 lied the whole area of the prtfent Caftle-fkeieL, efceept the fair fwampy part of it cto the weft*, and was tutdbve acred thre* roods and ten perches in extent. Terminated by. the windings of the Medfock on the fouth Jbuth*eaft and fomth-weft, it was bounded on the eaft by a fofle, on the weft by the prefent very lofty bank, and 6ft the north by a long and broad ditch. Th< fear&fai ad vantages df- the river *n& the bank were grtat induce* the principal inducement fliuft foaNre betfn oi>e of whitih the fimons could not readily be fuipe&cd, but upon which they ap- pear to have very frequently a<£ted* Moft of the British fortrefles appear to have had fuch a particular fee fele&ed for them as the area of the Caftle-field presented and die coidnefe 6f our ciimata required, one. that hy its pofitidn oath* i*ortfa*a b«*k of the rU D 2 ver,
 * meats with the Britons to fele£ this particular fituetion, Bfct